Damage from Typhoon Bolaven in North Korea, photographed near Komdok on Aug. 31 by KCNA, released Sept. 7 to EPA for international distribution.

September 15, 2012 – NORTH KOREA – Just as another typhoon headed toward the Korean peninsula, North Korea on Friday summarized the damage from the late summer storm season – 300 dead and another 600 injured or missing. North Korea’s state news agency said that the worst damage came from the typhoon called Bolaven that swept over the peninsula on Aug. 28 and 29. That storm alone killed 59 people and left about 26,320 people homeless after about 8,000 houses were destroyed by rain and flooding. For a country that is so poor and inefficient that each year’s summer storms leave it a disastrous wreck, North Korea provides strikingly precise data about the damage. Since mid-June, storms and floods damaged or destroyed 87,280 homes and left 298,050 people homeless, its news agency said. It did not say whether they were temporarily homeless from, say, floodwater, or indeed needed entire new homes. Among the other damage, 92 drinking water systems were ravaged and 16,900 trees knocked down. “More than 17,150 square meters of railroad were washed away and over 300 sections of railway were covered by landslides, with scores of tunnels and railway bridges damaged,” it said. Now comes Typhoon Sanba, which is heading north from the Philippines toward Okinawa this weekend and the Korean peninsula by Monday. It is a stronger storm than Bolaven, which was billed as the biggest in a decade but didn’t turn out that way. Stars and Stripes reporter Dave Ornauer on Okinawa warns that he’s never seen a storm as intense as Sanba is shaping up to be. By the time it hits the Korean peninsula, its winds will have died down from Category 4 to Category 2 speeds, he estimates. Even so, both South and North Korea are well-saturated. And North Korea is in no shape for another big storm. –WSJ

North Korea has an isolationist policy. Help comes with a price. Kind of like an I scratch your back, if you scratch mine. They don’t want to own anyone anything. For example if a foreign country takes aid from America they have to institute a pro-abortion policy. Since North Korea and South Korea have been at war for decades, they are the last people they want to take help from.

Another reason to stay aware in the U.S. Something is not right. Why is the other side of the world getting hammered by monster typhoons and we get tiny Tropical storms? Does not look good heading into end of 2012 if you ask me.

@ Debbie, They are a country that is full of pride in their military. They are so intent in becoming dominant force in the world, that their people mean nothing. Unfortunately, this will eventually be their downfall. (My opinion here) My prayers go out to the people.

@ Artoro, we can only pray that they did escape to find a better live somewhere. Unfortunately, most are probably are not aware of any other life than under their current leaders.